Disney just revealed its quarterly results for the past few months and it was the first full quarter since purchasing 21st Century Fox.  This had a impact on their numbers, especially due to issues with Star in India and X-Men: Dark Phoenix under performing in cinemas.

During an investors conference call, Disney CEO Bob Iger was asked multiple times about how Disney is integrating 21st Century Fox into its company, giving us some idea of what we can expect for the future, especially with regards to content on Disney+.

One of the key things Disney is doing with 21st Century Fox, is cutting back its movie release slate. They are focusing on releasing a few high quality movies at theaters, with other titles being released on Disney+ and Hulu.  This will also be a similar case for Fox Searchlight movies.

During the conference call, Bob Iger said:

“It will probably take a solid year, maybe two years, before we can have an impact on the films in production. We’re all confident we’re going to turn around the results of Fox live action,”

“One of the biggest issues was the Fox studio performance which was well below where it had been and well below where we hoped it would be when we made the acquisition,”

He also confirmed some new remakes of classic Fox movies would be coming to Disney+ and that one of the big reasons they wanted to buy 21st Century Fox was for the television and movie studios to ramp up production for Hulu and Disney+.

Another interesting point from this investors call was there was no mention of 21st Century Fox’s Blue Sky Studios, which create movies such as Ice Age and the upcoming Spies in Disguise.  It could have been an oversight, but Bob Iger mentioned Fox live action movies multiple times but never animation.

And Bob Iger also name dropped the Avatar and Planet of the Apes franchises they are working on.  Marvel characters such as Deadpool, X-Men and the Fantastic Four were mentioned by Bob Iger, as he confirmed these characters come under the control of Marvel Studios now.

Disney is making plenty of changes at 21st Century Fox, many of which are taking a while to sort out, but they are planning for the long road, not the short term gain.

What do you think of Disney’s refocused 21st Century Fox?

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Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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